It’s unclear whether Republicans have made an air-tight case for defunding NPR and PBS and all the other spending cuts in the modest $9 billion rescission package the Senate passed early Thursday.

But it’s not for any lack of effort on Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt’s part.

As floor leader for the rescission package, Schmitt’s speech in support of it may be a historical marker in the battle to stop the runaway train that is federal spending.

In a relentless bombardment of the left’s pilfering of taxpayer money to fund what he called “global left-wing revolution,” Schmitt laid out just some of the ways the left has siphoned billions in tax dollars to its own devices.

Not the least of which is the nearly $1 billion the package claws back from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s funding of National Public Radio and Public Broadcasting Service.

“NPR and PBS are not neutral media outlets. They are the closest thing we’ve ever had to an American Pravda,” Schmitt said, referring to the official newspaper of the Communist Party in Russia.

“They are arms of the left-wing activist class — taxpayer-funded platforms for political propaganda, masquerading as journalism.”

To bolster that claim, Schmitt needed only to quote NPR sources themselves – notably former NPR editor Uri Berliner, who blew the whistle on the network’s unalloyed partisanship, as well as NPR CEO Katherine Maher.

“In a stunning exposé, Berliner described how — from COVID to Hunter Biden’s laptop to the Russia hoax — NPR simply refused to consider any facts or perspectives that didn’t align with the progressive party line.

“Even asking questions about the company’s editorial bias was, and I quote, ‘treated as evidence of disloyalty.’

“Berliner took a survey of the ideological makeup of NPR’s editorial staff in D.C. The final tally was 87 Democrats, and zero Republicans.

“Zero Republicans. Not one.”

As for Maher, Schmitt said:

“Before she took the job, she spent years denouncing America, praising censorship, and advocating for the most extreme and grotesque forms of far-left politics.

“She described the First Amendment as the ‘No. 1 challenge’ to combating ‘disinformation,’ called President Trump a ‘deranged racist sociopath,’ and celebrated when he was banned from Twitter, saying it was ‘satisfying to deplatform fascists.’

“Now she’s running America’s National Public Radio, funded in part by your hard-earned tax dollars.”

Schmitt called that “nothing short of obscene.”

“Why are Americans being forced to subsidize institutions that hate them? Why are truck drivers in Missouri paying for Ivy League graduates in D.C. to tell them they’re bigots? Why are we, as conservatives, sending billions of dollars to left-wing radicals that want to run us out of the public square? 

“There is no good answer to these questions. The fact is, we shouldn’t be. … We are sending billions – billions! – to every interest under the sun except for that of our own country.”

As some examples of what the rescission package defunds, Schmitt cited:

• “$18 million for gender diversity in the Mexican street lighting industry

• “$2.4 million to make international disaster aid more considerate of “sexual orientation and gender identity”

• “$2.2 million to reduce “xenophobia” towards Venezuelan migrants

• “$3 million for Iraqi Sesame Street

• “$4 million for “sedentary migrants” in Colombia

• “$6.2 million to address the needs of Venezuelan migrants in Colombia

• “$33 million for the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), including funding for transgender tampons in Bangladesh, LGBTQ campaigns in Rio, and “third-gender” community centers in Southeast Asia

“We send billions overseas to promote transgenderism and DEI,” Schmitt added, “and spend billions here at home to import millions of illegal immigrants and pay the salaries of people who hate us — all while our own people are told there’s no money for safe streets, decent roads, or a secure border.

“The people who run these programs see the federal budget not as a means to serve the American people, but as a piggy bank for a global left-wing revolution.”

The administrative state, Schmitt said, “redistributes hundreds of billions of dollars a year from Middle America to a radical ecosystem of NGOs and activists working to undermine our civilization.

“For too long, the federal government has been hijacked by people with no loyalty to the country they’re supposed to serve. Today, we have a chance to change that.

“This is not just about saving money. It’s about taking back control. …

“We are not a tax farm for global leftism. We are not the world’s piggy bank. We are a sovereign nation — and it’s time we started acting like one again.”